Archive By Section - Columnists

When people think of veterans, they often think of warriors, but Hurricane Sandy offers just the latest reminder of the significant humanitarian and often times life-saving work performed by our veterans on a daily basis.

One of the strangest aspects of Election 2012 is that voters are demanding change but didn't change politicians. They left Republicans in charge of the House, elected an even more Democratic Senate and re-elected President Obama.

Maybe it's an ailment only men will understand, but let it be known that I suffer from recurring dreams about my old cars. It'll be three in the morning, and I'll be enjoying a nice snooze under a warm blanket when my subconscious will grab its little photo album of all our old cars. "Oh, look! There's that tiny MG you had! And here's that ancient Mercedes. Remember that one?" And I will remember each and every one of those cars, and the memories will become solid again, and I'll drive around Dreamland in ...

Nobody likes to lose. But defeats can prove advantageous if used as a learning tool. Newt Gingrich lost his first two congressional campaigns, but won his third. Twenty years after his first defeat, he changed the nation with the Contract With America.

My husband recently handed me one of his shirts which had a stain on it. He suggested that I try buying a certain product to rid the shirt of the stain.

I explained to him that I had tried several stain removing products and had settled on the one I now use. I was sorry that the stain was still on his shirt and told him I would try again. But I warned him it might not come clean.

Because of the timing of my column deadline, I will have to defer comment on the elections until next week. I can say this much, however. We cast our votes freely and with no tanks in the street.

As imperfect as we may think ourselves to be, this is still the greatest country on earth. The only thing that can change that is our own apathy and lack of appreciation for the freedoms we have. These freedoms haven't come cheap.

The eventual need for the Bear Creek Reservoir seems to be a foregone conclusion, but the county's need for more water may not materialize as soon as once predicted. Newton County recently was promised a $21 million state loan for Bear Creek Reservoir and the board of commissioners is now considering a resolution that will obligate taxpayers to finance the project and repay the loan. It appears that county officials are planning to proceed with construction within the next couple of years. However, a comprehensive analysis done as part of the 2011 Middle Ocmulgee Regional Water Plan indicated that ...

Numbers don't mean what they once did, do they? When I was a child, a quarter was real money, a dollar was manna from heaven, and a 20 meant you'd just celebrated a birthday. We kept our 10s and 20s in a bank that called itself the "Home of the Thousandaires." Becoming a thousandaire was a realistic goal when your deposit slip was nothing special. I'm sure a few of the people I knew dreamed of becoming millionaires, but the only millionaires I knew were the Clampetts who lived in a mansion in Beverly Hills. For me ...

No doubt there are thousands, possibly even millions of people like me who are glad that the election season is coming to an end. In less than a week, we will know the outcome of the presidential election (barring recounts).

Natural disasters like the one brutalizing the northeast this week are no time for politics. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made that abundantly clear Tuesday by praising President Barack Obama for his handling of the federal response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy.

It happened quite suddenly. One morning recently, we heard the rip and roar of a chainsaw and the guttural grinding of a wood chipper. The noises went on for the better part of the day, and even when the dissonance ended, we weren't happy. One by one, the neighbor's trees that lined our back fence had come down. Gone was our semblance of privacy. We had an unimpeded view of the back windows that faced ours, their storage shed and a metal garage, and even beyond into the next yard. Their trees had shaded our back porch and ...

This will be the last column that I write before the presidential election on Nov. 6. I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to beseech you to vote responsibly and with careful thought to the future of this United States. This is not an election to be corrupted by personal racial bias, mindless party politics or mind numbing ignorance of the issues and what's at stake with your vote.

The charter school amendment will be decided on Nov. 6. If it doesn't pass, it will be the greatest upset since David conked Goliath with a rock. Give me the money that has been made available to the pro-charter amendment forces (more than $2 million, almost all of it out-of-state) and let me quash the opposition's right of free speech and I could get the little dweeb that runs Iran elected Pope.